This morning Stefano and I accompanied my father-in-law to his appointment with the new oncologist, Dr. P. I must say, I was very favourably impressed by him…his manner, his approach, his sense of humour. Indeed, it was like meeting with a knowledgeable old friend, not with a specialist, which is how it should always be…but, unfortunately, most often is not…

My father-in-law had told me that Dr. P. didn’t use chemo or radiation, which seemed strange to me at the time, but that is what I reported here on the blog. Well, as it turns out, my father-in-law had misunderstood. This specialist is going to administer a chemo drug called fotemustine to my father-in-law…starting next week. Dr. P. said that fotemustine is very well tolerated and was very optimistic about the outcome, since the nodules on my father-in-law’s lungs are very small. I have more research to do…(incidentally, if anyone has experience with this drug, please get in touch with me or leave a comment here, thank you!)

Anyway, as soon as Dr. P. finished speaking, I began my spiel about curcumin and EGCG (and a few other things, including IP6 and boswellic acid). I handed over all the studies that I had found and was surprised to discover that Dr. P. had read almost all of them. But he really caught me off guard when he mentioned that a colleague of his is currently doing an in vivo study on curcumin and melanoma right there…in their hospital lab. And, he added, the results of this study are very promising. You could have knocked me over with a puffin feather! He then turned to my father-in-law and told him that he must take curcumin AND drink green tea while he does chemotherapy. Whoa…talk about unexpected! I was definitely not prepared for such a positive reaction…

Well, I don’t know what will happen…nobody does…but I hope to be playing cards with my father-in-law for many years to come…